I went to a dance at Chandlerville

Peng Jianbin's representative novel is the most moving chapter in contemporary Chinese literature
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Fourteen novels, close to the dust of life, touching the warmth of the skin, recalling the most subtle history, personal history, history of action, history of encounters, and history of separation, silence and those past events that accidentally broke the silence.
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With dreamlike narrative techniques, and a patience and calmness beyond survival, he writes about the subtle feelings in life, the momentary uneasiness, the sudden trance, and the eternal hum...
The wandering stranger finally reduced his physical and mental burden to silence.
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This is a dreamlike victory for the Southern Chinese language of my dreams. The plot arrangements, the details I choose to expand upon, and the things I discard in these novels are all determined by language. Whether those fictional events might or might not have occurred in real life has never been a basis for whether I should or shouldn't write them that way. Language alone determines whether or not I should write. When I write novels, I'm essentially imagining a people who speak the language of literature and dreaming of them living a life of unparalleled linguistic superiority. (Peng Jianbin)
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Peng Jianbin's novels are told in a unique style, making familiar things seem appealing. His writing is simple and intelligent, and his suspense is natural without being sensational. - Zhang Ming (Director)
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In the world of literature, he seems intent on (or perhaps infatuated with) dissolving "meaning," attempting to draw external, objective objects into the vortex of his mind, dissolving and digesting them, transforming them into a nonexistent yet unquestionable, eternal hum. Of course, this process is silent, a silent labor. I trust and envy this labor because the nothingness it presents is so pure. It can be said that nothingness manifests itself in Peng Jianbin's sentences, becoming one with them. —Jin Te [Novelist]
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Peng Jianbin's works, whether fiction or nonfiction, always seem to conceal a portrait of a sensitive, self-deprecating, and unyielding young writer. Similar portraits can be found in texts like Joyce or Camus, but Peng Jianbin's works are woven in Chinese, a Chinese that is unfashionable, pure, introspective, and noble. For this reason alone, his works are the finest of contemporary Chinese writing, and must be read and collected. —Wang Bang, Writer
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In recent years, Peng Jianbin has been my favorite Chinese writer. Sometimes I can't bear to read his books, because I think even a manual he wrote would be very moving. —Xie Ding [writer]

2020-11-01

上海文艺出版社

Single reading, carving culture

248

9787532178100